Awarded Honorable MentionSpringville Museum of Art

“Kingpin”, 36” x 36” Acrylic on Multi-Panel Acrylic Painting

Last evening I was awarded an Honorable Mention for my painting Kingpin during the opening reception of the 95th Annual Spring Salon at the Springville Museum of Art. It is a wonderful honor and feeling to be recognized for this painting and this new body of work.

Thanks to the jurors and all who work so tirelessly to make this such a successful and impressive exhibition in Utah.

What a tremendous honor to be awarded for my hard work and creativity. This recognition means so much as I continue to push the boundaries of what art means to me. Thank you Signature Montana Magazine for recognizing innovation and fine art in these one of a kind multi-panel acrylic paintings! This was a wonderful surprise!

Southwest Art Magazine: Artist of Note

Vibrant and vibrating layers of Fauvist color on 6 planes of clear acrylic panel, Janell James' compositions take advantage of space and light as additional media between the strata of paint and translucence.

Chloe Galleryis pleased to welcomeNorth American Artist

Janell Jamesto our San Francisco gallery

Mixing color,movement, and innovative process,

Janell James sits squarely at theintersection of abstract and landscape,creating a bridge betweentraditional and contemporary art.

“My paintings are an investigation of the intersection of traditional landscape imagery and modern ideas about painting and color. In my practice, I attempt to reconcile my personal history as an art-maker, as well as the tradition of landscape painting, with a contemporary art practice that borrows more specifically from a language of Modernism—specifically in regards to mid-century conversations about painting. Incidentally, both genres at work in my practice (abstraction and landscape) have a tradition of exploring ideas about the Sublime—Romantic and Modern—respectively.

"While my subject matter draws heavily from landscape, my process and true exploration is about painting in a Modern sense. My brush strokes become objects that hold their own presence. The colors and layering I use both create the illusion of space and undermine it in the proverbial push-pull of abstract painting. The interplay between light and shadows cast upon the many layers adds to the sculptural interpretation while also creating ‘living’ paintings that appear kinetic, interacting with the natural environment. The purpose of the layering of a transparent painting surface is to raise the stakes; the points of depth are deeper and the points of flatness are flatter. The increased depth and complication of flipping the surface back and forth and layering it multiple times is a demonstration of the mastery of the material as well as a device to push the boundaries of the flatness/depth dichotomy in every painting. My paintings are at once paintings and sculptures and they are at once landscapes and quite the opposite of that—something acrylic and manufactured that is more reflective of contemporary culture." - Janell James

Janell James and her buddy Roxy

Get in touch below for more information today on these lovely new multi-layered works now hanging at Chloe Gallery San Francisco!Kind Regards,Amy & Greg

Born and raised in Utah, I was always a free spirit allowed to roam the open fields near my home. Graced with the peaceful sounds of the Willow Creek running through my backyard I was surrounded by old growth trees that towered above me. I could spend hours outside playing in the dirt or lying on my back listening to the birds and looking up at the clouds through these trees.

I have always loved the Bay Area in California and so, I headed West to attend a two year intensive program at The Bay Area Classical Artists' Atelier. Completing my Classical training at an Atelier in Paris, I returned home to continue my studies in Helper, Utah. I continue to look for new ways of creating and expressing myself that have not yet been explored, marking my way individualistically as an artist.

James’ work is collected nationally and internationally. Recent museum exhibitions include Desire Lines at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, a 10 year retrospective at The Woodbury Art Museum, The Springville Museum of Art and the C.M. Russell Museum.

San Francisco has long been one of my favorite cities and this is why I am so thrilled to share with you a wonderful gallery in an equally wonderful city!Situated near the Embarcadero, Chloe Gallery is bustling with energy, views of the Golden Gate Bridge and of course, you can't miss that enchanting ocean breeze and opportunity for some fantastic sea food.Step inside the gallery and you will find abundant talent from all over the world. A gallery worth the visit next time you are in the Bay Area.Today, I said goodbye to these paintings available at Chloe Gallery.

SEE YOU SOON SAN FRANCISCO!!!

“I figure if a girl wants to be a legend she should just go ahead and be one.” Attributed to the American frontierswoman known as Calamity Jane, the quote hangs prominently in Janell James’ studio. It says plenty about the talented and determined Utah artist featured in UVU’s Woodbury Art Museum this month alongside Art of OUR CENTURY, an annual juried exhibition of new works from across the country.

A Brief Review of the Out West Art Show and Sale...

SAVE THE DATE!!!

Many thanks to my generous collectors, in advance, for allowing me to borrow nearly 95% of the work making up this ten year retrospective.

A Brief Review...The Out West Art Show and Sale was a success!SAVE THE DATE! I will be back again next year in Room 262, March 20 - 23, 2019, Great Falls, MT. Come see some one of the largest gatherings of western and contemporary artists.

Along with all of the wonderful sales and patronage, I am excited to announce in the very near future, new gallery representation!

I was delighted to see "Sublime Walden" find a home at the beach!

"Sublime Walden", 32" x 32" Acrylic on Multi-Layered Acrylic

"Tangerine" was collected by some new admiring fans during the C.M. Russell Museum Auction.Live auctions of any artists work will always be a nail biting experience for the artist!

"Tangerine", 20" x 18" Oil on Linen

"Watching Clouds Go By", one of my few remaining oil paintings, also found a home thanks to Terakedis Fine Art in Billings, MT!

"Watching Clouds Go By", 55" x 60" Oil on Houndstooth Linen

It is always fun to see a new collector discover my work and in this case she is from Great Falls, MT so, this little painting didn't have far to travel. What a wonderful cultural opportunity the Out West Art Show and Sale has offered its residents all of these years!

Many thanks to Barbara Stroud for finding my art online and being inspired by my work! It is always a wonderful feeling when people admire my work enough to hang it in their home. It is equally amazing when someone chooses to take the time to write about my work for the simple pleasure of sharing their joy with others.

That Barbara is inspired by my work reminds me that so are many others and, that is a gift and an honor. Thank you for enjoying the work that my heart and soul creates! Here's to creating many more paintings that inspire and bring light and joy into the lives of others!

New contemporary work available!

Dimensional. Sculptural. Kinetic. Living Art.

It would be a great honor if you could join me in the celebration opening nightFriday February, 23 from 6-9PM.

Make a night of it in the fresh mountain air!Book your dinner reservations today.

ARTIST STATEMENT

My paintings are an investigation of the intersection of traditional landscape imagery and modern ideas about painting and color. In my practice, I attempt to reconcile my personal history as an art-maker, as well as the tradition of landscape painting, with a contemporary art practice that borrows more specifically from a language of Modernism—specifically in regards to mid-century conversations about painting. Incidentally, both genres at work in my practice (abstraction and landscape) have a tradition of exploring ideas about the Sublime—Romantic and Modern—respectively.

While my subject matter draws heavily from landscape, my process and true exploration is about painting in a Modern sense. My brush strokes become objects that hold their own presence. The colors and layering I use both create the illusion of space and undermine it in the proverbial push-pull of abstract painting. The interplay between light and shadows cast upon the many layers ads to the sculptural interpretation while also creating ‘living’ paintings that appear kinetic, interacting with the natural environment. The purpose of the layering of a transparent painting surface is to raise the stakes; the points of depth are deeper and the points of flatness are flatter. The increased depth and complication of flipping the surface back and forth and layering it multiple times is a demonstration of the mastery of the material as well as a device to push the boundaries of the flatness/depth dichotomy in every painting. My paintings are at once paintings and sculptures and they are at once landscapes and quite the opposite of that—something acrylic and manufactured that is more reflective of contemporary culture.

Check out the feature article in SLUG Magazine and see a few pics during opening night at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art.

The Utah Museum of Contemporary Art’s (UMOCA) Main Gallery exhibition, Desire Lines, went up on Jan. 26. The show explores representations of the erosion that living beings exact onto the landscape via creating pathways. Of 15 total, Desire Lines features three local artists, Jane Christensen, Janell James and Kelly Larsen, who discuss their participation in the show.

"The Line Up", 27" x 33" Acrylic on Multi-Layered Acrylic is on exhibition at UMOCA until May 26

SLUG: Please tell us some background about you as an artist and your present artistic practice.Janell James: I was classically trained at the Bay Area Artists Atelier in San Francisco and then studied in Paris. This way of learning is very tight and technical, and helped me to understand draftsmanship, line, form and light. I knew early on that my personality wouldn’t last long in the classical realism style and what I really wanted was to loosen up my artistic approach. This is when I found the Helper School in Utah, taught by professors from the University of Utah, Paul Davis and David Dornan. Davis and Dornan were great masters at teaching me how to loosen up through various mark-making and random techniques that really helped me evolve as an artist. Twelve years of dedicated study to my craft and continual willingness to learn and try new things is what has helped my work evolve into something with a very unique and original voice.

SLUG: How does your work in the show represent the landscape?James: Traditionally, landscape art has wanted to connect us back to nature, and I try to do this in a way that combines multiple styles, including traditional, modernism and contemporary art, so that there is a little bit of something for everyone. I mainly paint trees with a composition that allows them to move beyond their borders into the room … My work on acrylic will at first appear to the viewer as a 2-D painting. People are always surprised when they walk up on the work and see the added depth and dimension that was not initially obvious …We relate to nature in the same way. When we are physically in nature, we begin to notice the subtleties and deeper beauty.

SLUG: Specifically regarding the definition of desire lines being paths created by human- or animal-footfall traffic, how does your work respond to that idea?James: My goal has always been to bridge the gap between traditional and contemporary art through my work. This is my path if you will … through the past and its wealth of tradition into the present, where I can explore those ideas through a contemporary vernacular, eventually having found my own line.

Janell James. Photo courtesy of the Artist.

SLUG: What mediums do you employ for your pieces? Why did you choose them?James: Acrylic plexiglass and acrylic paint. I chose them because they are, in many ways, the polar opposite of traditional mediums—a way to take very complex, age-old master’s techniques like reverse painting and the glazing and layering of oil paints, exploding them onto modern mediums that speak more to current times.

SLUG: What challenges did you face in creating your work for this show, and how did you respond to them?James: When I was first approached to be a part of Desire Lines, I was thrilled and honored. Realizing I currently have six exhibitions on the books between now and May, you might say I created another puzzle to solve. They say we aren’t given more than we can handle in life, and so far, I’m digging my heals in and enjoying every minute of it, along with some occasional scream therapy and a little dry white wine.

SLUG: Given the politicized state of the Utah landscape in light of Bears Ears National Monument and the conversations happening around the landscape, how might your work comment on or participate in that dialogue?James: I’m not a political artist, but with the politicized state of the landscape in Utah, it’s been weighing on my mind and is finding it’s way into my work in small ways. One of my latest paintings is titled “Sacred,” and it is of a Southern Utah Juniper tree … The age alone of some of those trees amazes me. Another recent painting is titled “We Stand Together.” Both of these works were finished during the week of the Bears Ears protest at the State Capitol, which I attended. My heart was in my throat while I was there standing with people who shared the same passion, hopes and ideas. The making and titles of those works are ways of marking significant moments for me, and hopefully, they will spark a bigger dialogue about what inspired them.

SLUG: Besides Desire Lines, how may people see/find your work, whether online, in person or otherwise?James: I’m represented by four galleries nationally with Trove Gallery in Park City, Utah; Rare Gallery in Jackson Hole, Wyoming; Terakedis Fine Art in Billings, Montana; and Zarks Gallery in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. I have recently been contacted by galleries interested in my work in San Francisco and Washington, D.C., with a growing national presence. I have a strong online presence as well on Facebook, Janell James Artist; on Instagram and Twitter as @janelljamesartist. Including three museum shows, a feature gallery opening, a group exhibition I co-curated/facilitated with Donna Poulton about Helper Artists and one art fair between now and May, I continue to have a strong regional, exhibition, gallery and museum presence. Upcoming exhibitions: Finch Lane Gallery is currently exhibiting Square One: Helper Artists of Utah, Jan. 12–Feb. 23. Trove Gallery in Park City is curating a feature exhibition of my work Feb. 23–March 9 with an opening reception Feb. 23. At UMOCA, Desire Lines, runs through May 26, having opened Jan. 26. C.M. Russell Exhibition and Auction, Great Falls, Montana, Feb. 15–March 15. UVU, Woodbury Art Museum, Spotlight Artist Janell James, May 10–July 14, Orem, Utah, opening May 15.

Desire Lines is at UMOCA (20 S. West Temple) through May 26. For more information, go to utahmoca.org.

DESIRE LINES

“Desire Line – a path created as a consequence of erosion caused by human or animal foot-fall or traffic. The path usually represents the shortest or most easily navigated route between an origin and destination. Desire lines emerge as shortcuts where constructed ways take a circuitous route, have gaps or are non-existent.” (Wikipedia)

The landscape as a genre has held captive the imagination of the American public for the better part of the last two centuries. With unbound adoration, we have embraced the landscape, from the grandeur of the paintings of the Hudson School to the manifest destiny myth of a rugged and unspoiled west. Americans have been drawn to artists’ interpretation of place, real and fictional. Despite the popularity of the landscape, too often the public conceptualizes these works in a very traditional way, whether that is plein air oil, watercolor painting or photographs that are devoid of any hint of human disturbance.

Desire Lines highlights the various paths, ranging from archiving to reproduction to collaborations with nature to works that critique the history of landscape focused art, taken by the artists included in the exhibition to explore our complicated relationship to the landscape that shapes and supports us and our repeated desire to represent it.

Nationally emerging artist Janell James is reinventing the landscape with unique dimensional paintings on multiple panes of acrylic glass. These paintings are singular in approach, sculptural and kinetic becoming 'living' paintings as light shifts and plays between the layers, casting shadows and illuminating her subjects.

Janell’s dedication over the past ten years to her full-time painting career is impressive to say the least, especially speaking as a gallery owner, this is but one aspect that I feel makes her collectible as an artist. She is one of the hardest working artists I have come across, focused and determined to make a way for herself as a professional in a career that requires both persistence and resilience, marketing skills, commitment to her trade, and an adaptability that allows her to continue to create new processes of work unlike any other. She is unique and original in this nexus of work and, this is what makes her stand out as an artist to watch.

— Zack Terakedis, Terakedis Fine Art, Billings, MT

You are cordially invited to attend my first solo, gallery showing of new works on multi-layered acrylic at Terakedis Fine Art in Billing, MT. There will be three openings September 21, 22 and, 23. If you can attend please, let me know and I will make sure you are on the VIP list.

It is an honor for me that Terakedis Fine Art placed ads in both Fine Art Connoisseur Magazine and Western Art Collector for this exhibition. I truly am reaching my dream and, feel so fortunate to have great people behind me advocating my work!

Since the inception of this work 1 1/2 years ago, I have sold more than 2/3 of the collection. I am grateful beyond belief at the success that I am having and, want you to know how grateful I am to you for helping me get here. If you haven’t seen this new collection yet, I do hope that you can one day soon. My Salt Lake City, UT studio and home gallery are always open by appointment so, please let me know when you would like a private tour.

It has been a long time since I shared with you what has been happening in my art life and, that is because it has been the ‘good kind of busy'. Since the successful auctioning of my painting “Closer” during the C.M. Russell Museum’s annual auction in Great Falls, MT in March (watch below), I have participated in three other showings and have been vigorously preparing for my solo show less than two weeks away.

I have a blog coming soon to keep you up to date in more relevant time, a new website that I just released, along with many other exciting things on the horizon that I look forward to sharing with you!